SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 9 December 2024
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for Acknowledgments; here for the FAQ; here for advice on citations. Find entries via the search box above (more details here) or browse the menu categories in the grey bar at the top of this page.
Site updated on 2 December 2024
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Flat Earth
The Pseudoscientific belief that the Earth is flat has lingered with a strange persistence, supported largely by Biblical literalism but also by sheer contrarian perversity despite increasingly overwhelming scientific evidence. An important nineteenth-century proponent was the eccentric UK inventor and controversialist Samuel Birley Rowbotham (1816-1884), whose arguments led to the founding in 1884 of the Universal Zetetic Society (publishers of ...
Slater, Robert L
(1967- ) US teacher and author who began to publish work of genre interest with the first installation of a book-length story, "Jack and the Beanstalk" in Galactic Citizen #2 for January 1993, the last of five instalments appearing in June 1994. His Young Adult Deserted Lands sequence beginning with All Is Silence (2014) is set in a post-Pandemic (see ...
Glynn, A A
(1929-2019) UK author, a former commercial artist and long-time newspaper journalist, well known in British Fandom during the 1950s. He began to publish work of genre interest with "Perseus" for Futuristic Science Stories #7 in 1952; other SF Magazine stories followed, including two as by Anthony Martin. His sf novels – both routine Pulp productions typical ...
Binns, Jack
(1884-1959) UK-born ship radio operator, in the US from 1912; famous for staying at his post on 23-24 January 1909 and transmitting the CQD distress call for eighteen hours without stopping as his ship, the Republic, began to sink; in World War One he worked as an instructor in the Canadian Flying Corps, and later (now resident in the US; he was naturalized in April 1923) wrote introductions to the Radio Boys (see Radio Boys) sequence for the ...
Castillo Vicci, Alberto
(1938- ) Venezuelan author and retired professor emeritus who has published twelve books about artificial intelligence (see AI) and the fundamentals of science. His Cuentos esotéricos ["Esoteric Tales"] (coll 2008) won the Premio de Narrativa "La Tuna de Oro" presented by Casa Nacional de las Letras Andrés Bello in 2008. In this collection, he extends some logical, scientific, philosophical ...
Langford, David
(1953- ) UK author, critic, editor, publisher and sf fan, in the latter capacity recipient of 21 Hugo awards for fan writing – some of the best of his several hundred pieces are assembled as Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man (coll 1992 chap US; much exp vt The Silence of the Langford 1996; exp 2015 ebook) as Dave Langford, edited by Ben Yalow – plus five Best Fanzine Hugos ...